'The Crown' Season 3 : First Look at Josh O’Connor as Prince Charles
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A new image from The Crown shows one of Season 3's pivotal recreations: Prince Charles' Investiture Ceremony.
Netflix's The Crown is billed as the story of Queen Elizabeth II's reign, from the time she took the throne in 1952 until the present day. The first two seasons stuck to this pretty faithfully. Though Margaret got an episode or two each season, and Charles got his first at the end of Season 2, everything has generally been told from Elizabeth's perspective.
Fans are expecting this to change, at least a little, in the coming seasons, as Elizabeth's children come of age. There's been a great deal of fanfare about the passing of the royal torch from Claire Foy to Olivia Colman in the role of the queen, but there's been just as much focus on the series' casting Prince Charles (The Durrells in Corfu's Josh O'Conner), Princess Anne (Erin Doherty), and Charles' longtime love and future wife, Camilla Parker (Emerald Fennell). Therefore, it should surprise no one that one of the first on-set leaks to go viral from the series is one featuring Charles.
This is also the first look viewers have had from the series of actor Josh O'Conner as the future King of England, and it from one of the pivotal moments the show will stage this year: Charles' 1969 Investiture, the ceremony that made him the official heir to the throne when Elizabeth finally passes.
The moment Netflix's The Crown filmed the iconic balcony scene at Caernarfon Castle https://t.co/4rZUjBXimb pic.twitter.com/KQ4lYMylHt
— PIG PR (@PRLiverpool) November 19, 2018
Both the new Elizabeth and Philip (played by Tobias Menzies) are also visible in the shot, though poor Philip is pushed into the background somewhat.
The 1969 ceremony took place at Caernarfon Castle in Wales, as Charles was being created "Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester." (Technically this was already done by Letters Patent in July of 1958, but Elizabeth waited until he was of age to do the ceremony.) The idea of investing the next ruler of the U.K. in Wales began back in the 1300s after King Edward I conquered Wales, but it fell out of tradition during the 1600s. It wasn't until 1911 that it was revived, as a way to help solidify the monarchy in the face of the oncoming Great War. That investiture, for the record, was for the future King Edward VIII (played by Alex Jennings in the series), who, as everyone knows, then abdicated the throne.
Elizabeth's decision to bring it back in the late 1960s for her son was therefore not without controversy. But it made for great television. And from the looks of it, The Crown, which filmed the scene on location, expects it to do the same for Netflix.
The Queen’s hat for her son’s investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969 was rather odd, but the Netflix re-creation on Olivia Coleman for “The Crown” looks like a space helmet!! pic.twitter.com/WJoQNTuq0C
— Sally Bedell Smith (@SBedellSmith) November 19, 2018
As fans have already noted, the costumes here are spot on to what Elizabeth and Charles wore at the actual ceremony, including the Queen's footballer helmet-esque hat. Personally, I cannot wait to see the entire ceremony recreated for the show.
The Crown Season 3 is expected to premiere on Netflix sometime in 2019.
